Pre Fab Academy Program

Week 1

Day 1 (19.10.2015)

Introduction

The trainer for the Pre Fab is Mr Francisco Sanchezz

profile:  Francisco Sanchez, 42, Civil Engineer with specialty in structural engineering and tall buildings. He also LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction by the USGBC. He was graduated in Fab Academy in 2013, founded the The Fabulous Beach Lab, a fab lab in Sitges (a small town near Barcelona) and since then he run the Fab Academy the program as instructor.

Pre FAB Academy Presentations.

Mr Francisco Sanchezz take the presentations for the Pre FAB Academy. The presentation contains Digital Fabrication introduction, Fab labs and Fab lab Network

Digital Fabrication introduction

analog and digital signal  –  analog communication to digital communication ~ 1945

     analog computation to digital computation ~ 1955

     analog fabrication to digital fabrication ~ 2005

Fab Foundation Mission

The Fab Foundation was formed February 9, 2009 to facilitate and support the growth of the international fab lab network through the development of regional Fab Foundations and organizations. The Fab Foundation is a US non-profit 501(c) 3 organization that emerged from MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms Fab Lab Program. Our mission is to provide access to the tools, the knowledge and the financial means to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything, and thereby creating opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods around the world. Community organizations, educational institutions and non-profit concerns are our primary beneficiaries. The Foundation has three programmatic foci: education (.edu), organizational capacity building and services (.org), and business opportunity (.com).

Fab Foundation Board

Sherry Lassiter – President

Neil Gershenfeld - Chairman of the Board

Stuart Gannes  -Vice President

Simone Amber - Board Member

Chris Wilkinson - Board Member

Fab Lab Network

The Fab Lab Network is an open, creative community of fabricators, artists, scientists, engineers, educators, students, amateurs, professionals, ages 5 to 75+, located in more than 40 countries in approximately 200 Fab Labs. From community based labs to advanced research centers, Fab Labs share the goal of democratizing access to the tools for technical invention. This community is simultaneously a manufacturing network, a distributed technical education campus, and a distributed research laboratory working to digitize fabrication, inventing the next generation of manufacturing and personal fabrication.

http://www.fabfoundation.org

Fab Lab tour for participants

Mr Francisco Sanchezz showing and explain the all machine's and equipment's in the FAB Lab KERALA. The equipment's and machine's like :

1. 1.Shopbot PRSAlpha-96-48-6 Full Size PRSalpha CNC  

2. 2.Weller WES51 Analog Soldering Station  

3. 3.Ultimaker 2 

4. 4.Modela miller 

5. 5.Laser cutter 

6. 6.Digital Storage Oscilloscope 

7. 7.3D printer. Dimensions sst 12000es 

8. 8.Scroll Saw 

9. 9.Band Saw 

10. 10.Molding and Casting 

11. 11.Electronics workbench  

Then we moved on to the course routine of the actual Faba academy course and then to the 4 week pre fab. He

explained why we need a Prefab training and how it will help us while we take the Fab Academy course.

Then Francisco shared a folder via. google drive which we will use to store and share files. Then we had a

discussion on what we will be doing in the first week in detail.

Day 2 (20.10.2015)

Second day we started with Francisco educating us to keep a separate note book for writing down all the points during the course of the workshop. It is insisted to use the same notebook if you are attending the fab academy.

Exp: work in laser cutter,things we need to note are

• •.Date 

• •.Machine used 

• •.Material (thickness, type, color…) 

• •.Settings (speeds, feed rates...) 

• •.Results (what worked, what didn’t) 

• •.Debugging 

   

•  

• •.Assignment: Document what you do every day. 

The documentation shall be done in such a way that in case of doing a machine operation Name of the work Name of the machine Spec Settings Measurements (if any) Having never used ubuntu before, when Fracisco asked to install Ubuntu 14.4, it was like What should i do with it. My Laptop Specs: Model: Dell Inspiron 15z-5523 Ultrabook Processor: 3rd Gen Intel® Core™i7 processors and the performance-enhancing features of Windows 8 with 8 GB RAM Installing Ubuntu 14.04 The important thing before installation of Ubuntu is to create partitions in the available hard disk space by opening Manage -> Computer Management-> Storage and you can see the way how your hard disk is divided into various partitions. My hard disk had 6 primary partitions and one secondary partition I try to install Ubuntu 14.04 on my computer, but its not working. I decided to formated my laptop and new install the Ubuntu 14.04.

Boot from the pendrive. plugging in the boot able pendrive with Ubuntu 14.04 restart the computer and choose to boot from the pendrive. I  have to change my boot preferences by hitting the Setup (F12) key while my computer is restarting.

Navigate through the top menu bar and you can find Legacy Boot [Enable] [Disable] Press F10 and Save. Ubuntu opens up next objective is to create three partitions namely /, /home, and swap area. For / Memory : Primary Ext 24 Allocate space as per your choice (50 GB) For /home Memory: logical Ext 24 Space allocated: 100 GB For swap area Space allocated: 4 GB Install Ubuntu

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have completed installing Ubuntu, update the OS by opening the Terminal (Ctrl+alt+t). apt-get update If this shows permission denied use the below command sudo apt-get update (sudo means super user do) Once you have successfully updated Ubuntu, the next step is to download the dependencies and for which log on to kokompe.cba.mit.edu Once that is done next step is to download the fab modules Unzip the fab module,open the folder, right click select open terminal here. If you couldnt find it you need to install nautilus (file manager) sudo apt-get install nautilus Install fab modules Then downlaod kokopelli.retro.zip (shared by francisco) extract make fab cd bin ./kokopelli Download antimony Search github antimony Open Intall Qt5.5 (an application, where in you can design software by placing buttons and corresponding codes are generated simultaneously) Install the following Clone antimony (for getting the antimony updated automatically) ~/Qt5.5.1/5.5/gcc_64/bin/qmake ../sb.pro, sudo make -j8, ./app/antimony - Antimony is not getting installed in my computer . Antimony installation time I faced some Problem - It didn't compile correctly for the first time. I ask my friend, he toled me “to delete the entire cloned folder, re-clone it and build again. After next time it got installed”. Next time I installed the antimony getting installed successfully.

 

Installed the list of software bellow:

1. 1.inkscape 

2. 2.openscad 

3. 3.gimp 

4. 4.cura 

5. 5.arduino IDE (not the ubuntu software center version) 

6. 6.attiny addon for arduino IDE 

7. 7.processing 

8. 8.qcad 

9. 9.git 

10. 10.eagle 

11. 11.kicad 

12. 12.wine 

13. 13.partworks in wine 

14. 14.Text editor of your choice 

Problems occurred:

Day 3 (21.10.2015)

Creating accounts for

• •.Fablabs.io account - already had one 

• •.git.fabcloud.io account - created a new one. 

• •.Google account - already had one 

• •.Youtube and/or Vimeo account - had youtube account , created a new vimeo account. 

• •.Github account - created a new one. 

• •.Dropbox account - created a new one.  

• •.Sketchfab.com account - created a new one. 

Created a repository in our github account. Configured the git in our computers via terminal. Cloned the repo

created earlier into our PC. Then created an html file containing code to display “Hello World!!” inside the local

folder.

Operation:

create new folder in the desktop – file name: ”git”

open the folder and right click the mouse

 

select the open in terminal

Type:

git clone.https://github.com/vkbg/vkbg.github.io

ls

cd vkbg.github.io

nano index.html

 

Then added it to github repo. Did my initial commit and then Pushed everything.

Type:

git init

git confi__global u

git add index.html

git commit -m”first commit”

pushed to cloud

Type:

git push -u origin master

Problems occurred:

Day 4 (22.10.2015)

We started with Francisco educating us Time management

• •.Supply vs Demand-based time 

• •.serial vs parallel development 

• •.Spiral development 

• •.bottom-up vs top-down debugging (solve the problem or the cause) 

   

My FAB Lab Trivandrum, Keep it clean and take the inventory, prepare the inventory list.

Clean job aria – Electronics workbench and consumables

Week 2

Day 5 (26.10.2015)

(week 2 is to learn to use all the machines in each day)

Today we learn the operation and how to install the Vinyl Cutter

Using CUPS we created a new profile for the vinyl cutter. Care has to be taken while naming the device, it

should be “vinyl” and it is case sensitive Then each of us made a design for cutting. I chose to cut out my

initial (BG) . Then we were taught how to form a sticker properly and the steps to be followed.

 

Go to Adding Printers and classes

 

 

select the Raw Queue (en) and click the Add Printer. The vinyl printer installed my computer,

go to terminal

type: fab

 

 

 

 

 

         My design           My Vinyl print out 

Day 6 (27.10.2015)

Today we learn the operation and how to install the Laser Cutter.

Design was made in Inkscape and then the saved .svg file was copied to the PC connected to the Laser cutter.

This has the necessary job control software for the machine installed. The software only runs in Windows (sigh!)

so we are forced to switch computers !!. Hopefully in the future Fab Module will support the Laser cutter too.

We lasered a cardboard sheet of 3.6mm thickness. By trial and error we determined the cut and engrave speed

and power. Make sure that we note down the optimal value in our note books.

Day 7 (28.10.2015)

Today we learn the operation and how to install the 3D Printer (Ultimaker 2).

We started with Antimony software. Made a 3D design file for keeping the head of the hot blower.

Afternoon session was on 3-D printing.

After design the object to save as to .stl file and save the desktop. The .stl file to open with cura software.

And the file convert .stl to .gcode format and save to an Ultimaker 2 SD card. Print the file using the rotate able Nobe and display.

 

Design: Take care of the levelling of the plate and make the distance between extruder head and the plate optimum. 45 degree is the maximum allowable slope. If it is higher than 45, the software will add support material. We must try to avoid the use of the support material. Positioning of the shape is also very crucial. The orientation will change according to the application of the printed object.

Controllable parameters:

• •.speed : slower the better, normal speed 50mm/sec 

• •.temperature : lower the better, find the minimum temp and use that. 

• •.fill density : lower density saves material but lowers the structural robustness. 

• •.speed in between printing layers. We can make it wait in between layers for the plastic to solidify. 

• •.thickness of the layer : 100 micron is standard. 60 is great, anything below, don't bother. 150 if you are in a hurry.  

Note : For troubleshooting Ultimaker 2, http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide#elephant

Day 8 (30.10.2015)

Today we learn the operation and how to install the Modella.

Milling in Wax Block: Every dimension minus 10mm. That is, height, depth, etc . Take care of the maximum depth you can go while designing according to the size of the milling bit. The parameter in Fab Modules is clearance which take account of the mill length.

We didn't get time to mill as we got stuck in Laser cutting the Modella base. But covered all everything needed to be done in the software side. Important points to be noted are.

1. 1.Design from antimony has to be exported as heightmap, which is basically .png file.  

• • ◦later came to notice that exporting as .png had some bad effects on the cut, so better export as .stl and use that in fabmodules. 

   2.         Open fabmodules and give input as .png/.stl and select the Modella as machine.

   3.    Afterwards select the exported file and select initially the cut as rough cut and after finishing the rough   cut do the final cut.

• •Setting values in fabmodules is as follows 

  give the right dia od the bit we are using. 

  give the overlap as .5 rather than .25 which loads as default.  

  look if their is any disparity in the dimensions of the one you designed and the one shown in fabmodules. If there's any, correct it.  

• •choose the origin according to the placement of your wax block.  

• •make .rml and send it to the modella. 

  4.    When the milling is over, collect all the milled out wax so that we can use it to make another usable wax block.  

Day 9 (31.10.2015)

Today we learn the operation and how to install the ShopBot

Design for milling: day we started with that. Gave a Design done by Puneeth.  

Reviewed the documentation done by all. Franc told what all needed to be done in extra. Cleared all the

doubts/roadblocks preventing documentation.

Yesterday I designed  the object using the Antimony software